The enFocus Fellowship - Summer Cohort

Who We Are
enFocus, a non-profit organization, brings an entrepreneurial focus to communities in the South Bend - Elkhart, Indiana region by recruiting top talent, providing mentorship and cohort-based programming, and executing innovation projects for community partners, called sponsors, in the Civic (education, government, healthcare, nonprofit, etc.) and Industry (manufacturing, technology, private business, etc.) sectors. 

Before You Apply
Please apply to only one enFocus Fellowship position during each recruitment cycle. Each Fellowship posting is intended for a specific candidate profile or hiring timeline. Review all Fellowship opportunities before choosing the one that best matches your qualifications and interests.

Submitting multiple Fellowship applications will not improve your chances of selection and may negatively impact your candidacy. If our recruiting team determines that another Fellowship opportunity is a better match for your background, we may consider you for that opportunity without requiring an additional application. If you're unsure which Fellowship is the best fit, please contact recruiting@en-focus.org before applying.

What You’ll Do
Throughout this salaried, two-year Fellowship, enFocus will provide you with meaningful work responsibilities, continuous professional development, and access to a network of mentors to assist you as you progress in your career.

As a Fellow, you'll work with enFocus Project Managers to discover, design, and implement innovative solutions for project sponsors. Due to variation in project size and scope, you'll execute between one and three consulting-like innovation projects at any given time. Simultaneously, you'll also conduct applied research and/or pursue entrepreneurial endeavors by supporting team members of existing enFocus incubations or by spearheading your own founder project to launch a startup, technology, or social impact initiative in the region. In the second year, you may have the possibility to take on further management and leadership responsibilities.

Each project will require different work activities, though all Fellows will be expected to:

• Develop and execute a project management plan for all projects
• Share opportunities and coordinate with various stakeholders, community leaders, and business executives
• Conduct discover activities, such as customer/stakeholder interviews, strategic research, and data collection and analysis
• Conduct design activities, such as program design, business model and/or marketing campaign development, process mapping, technology/software requirements definition, grant-writing, and strategic planning
• Conduct implement activities, such as technology/software implementation, employee training, project/stakeholder management, marketing strategy execution, and data collection/evaluation
• Contribute to at least one self-directed or existing enFocus Research, Development, & Entrepreneurship project
• Communicate regular project updates to enFocus staff and sponsors via meetings, email, and well-organized presentations
• Positively represent enFocus through all project engagements and any other enFocus events

Though some Fellows may work across our Civic and Industry portfolios, most Fellows are assigned to either Civic Innovation or Industry Innovation projects.

On Civic Innovation projects, you might:

• Partner with government officials to design a city-wide sustainable food system
• Develop and deploy a community needs assessment for a non-profit hospital
• Build strategic and financial plans for a grant-funded, community ride-sharing initiative
• Create and implement a Google Ads campaign and a marketing strategy for a local workforce development agency

On Industry Innovation projects, you might:

• Use business problem-solving methodologies to examine processes, data, and financial flows to identify efficiency gains and optimize value streams for a manufacturer
• Design and pilot research studies regarding products, markets, and supply chain dynamics for an existing business or emerging startup
• Analyze and visualize data for a private business using tools such as PowerBI and Tableau, as well as programming languages such as Python, R, and SQL

Regardless of their primary project portfolio, all Fellows will contribute to Research, Development, & Entrepreneurship initiatives. On these types of projects,